Grain door



Patented Apr. 7, 1936 PATENT OFFICE GRAIN DOOR Henry William Ethell,Erinview, Manitoba, Canada Application August 8,

l Claim.

The invention relates to improvements in grain doors and an object ofthe invention is, to produce a door for railroad freight cars which issimple in construction, will permit the loading of the cars with grain,such as wheat, oats,

barley, etc., can be quickly opened at the terminal for dumping purposesand when not in use, conveniently stored under the roof of the car,readily accessible for further use.

A further object of the invention is, to construct the operating partsof the door as a permanent part of the freight car and such, that thedoor may be erected into place without requiring special tools.

A further object of the invention is, to construct the door in tiers ofsections, the said sections having their upper and lower edges cut incomplementary abutments, forming, when in use, a grain tight wall toprevent see-page and permitting, due to the sectional construction, thestacking of the sections in a minimum of space when stored.

A further object of the invention is, to provide the car with doorguides and a lock and the lower section with connections such, that bythe use of a crane or other lifting force, the door can be bodilylifted, either for a short distance and held by the lock for dumpingpurposes, or carried up to the storage position.

A still further object of the invention is, to loosely mount thesections on the door guides to permit them to turn at the upper cornerwhen moving along the guides,'and to construct the guides at a slightangle so that the said clearance is taken up on the bottom section,forcing it tight to the door posts, while the weight of the grain isutilized to maintain the upper sections in a similar grain tightengagement.

With the above important objects in view which will become more apparentas the description proceeds, the invention consists essentially, in thearrangement and construction of parts hereinafter, more particularlydescribed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary, vertical, longitudinal section taken through afreight car and looking at the inner side of the grain door.

Fig. 2 is a vertical, cross sectional| view taken at 2 2, Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, horizontal section taken at 3 3, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of an end of one of the door sectionsshowing the shape of the 1934, Serial No. 738,970

upper and lower edges and one of the guiding U bars.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the lower part of the door showing thehook connections for lifting it up.

In the drawings, like characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in the several gures.

A freight car is generally indicated by the numeral I and comprises afloor 2 and sides 3. The upper ends of the sides are fastened to a sill4 which carries crossbeams 5 supporting the roof Ei. The usual doorways'i are provided on either side with door posts 3 and 9 extending betweenthe floor and the sill. f

On the sides of the door posts remote from thedoorway, I fasten as bybolts IE), a pair of angle irons I I and I2 which extend up the sides ofthe posts and then curve inward under the sill and terminate in ahorizontal plane a short distance within the car proper. It will here benoticed, that the angle irons at the floor level are slightly in fromthe inner edge of the door posts and that they extend upward at a slightslant until they are flush with the edge before starting to curve.

A pair of channel irons I 3 and I4 extend across the car at the doorwaysand are supported centrally from the crossbeams 5 by bolts I5. Thesechannels are positioned between the ends of the angle irons Il and l2 oneither doorway and are aligned therebetween, although they do not toucheach other. The central part of the channels are provided withprojecting webs I3 fastened to the base part of the channel irons andextending outward therefrom to a point level with the two opposingflanges. This divides the area between the anges into two compartmentsI4 and I5. These webs extend from the ends of the channels and terminatea short distance from the bolts I5, leaving a Vertical passage IB for apurpose later described.

A grain door IE is received against the inner sides of the door postsand comprises a plurality of sections I'I extending slightly more thanthe full width of the door posts and carried one on top of the other.The upper part of each section presents a lengthwise extending tongue I8 on the outer edge and on the inner edge, from the bottom of thetongue, a downwardly sloping face I9. The lower part of the section iscornplementary to the upper part (with the exception of the bottonisection) so that all the sections receive each other and present a graintight abutment on their inner faces.

At either end. of each section, I provide a U shaped bar 2U fastenedthrough the base of the U to the section by rivets 2|. The ends of the Ubar are bent around the end of the section and pass over to the angleirons II and I2 and are then hooked over the flanges thereof. By thisarrangement, all the sections are maintained in their proper places inrespect to each otherl and the angle irons form a guide for theirvertical movements. It will also be noticed that as the angle irons areplaced on the sides of the door posts, they are out of the way when thecar is used for other merchandise.

On the bottom of the lower section and adjacent the ends thereof, Ilocate a pair of U shaped straps 22 and 23, which straddlethe bottom ofthe section and are fastened thereto by bolts 24 passing through thesection. Hooks 25 are pivotally connected to the ends of the bolts 24 attheir outer extremities.

When the freight car reaches the terminal and it is desired to empty thecar, a chain is connected across the hooks 25. A 'crane or other sourceof lifting power is attached to the chain and the door can be bodilylifted, the U shaped hooks 20 sliding along the angle irons II and I2.As the door is lifted, the hooks click past a pair of lock bars 26pivoted on the dooi` posts and riding against the iianges of the angleirons. When the bottom Asection has cleared the lock bars, thelifting'force is released and the lock bars support the door in anelevated position, the majority of the grain in the meantime having runout through the opening below the door. The car is then tipped over onits side and the balance of the grain is removed.

If it is desired to store the door, the operator may re-connect thecrane and lift the sections or he may do the workmanually, lifting eachsection, one at a time, the sections passing around the curved, upperends of the angle irons II and I2 and are then received between theupper flanges of the channel irons I3 and Ill and the webs I3'. Thesections are then slid along the compartments I4 toward the centre ofthe car and all the rst sections are passed down the vertical passagesIIB where they are stored in a horizontal position in the lowercompartments I5 while the latter sections are stored in a similarposition in the upper `compartments I4. 'I'he arrangement is shown toadvantage at 21 in Fig. 2.

In reference to the moving of the sections along the angle irons II andI2 to the storage position, it will be noticed, that due to the slope ofthe angle irons, the connections between the sections and thefangleironsis very loose the farther up the sections are lifted and due to thisconstruction, the angle irons not only avoid the sill at the uppercorner, but the loose play afforded, permit the sections to pass freelyaround the curve without binding.

From a consideration of Fig. 2, it will be observed that the sections inthe lower compartments I5 cannot escape at the ends of the channels dueto an upstanding bolt 28 carried at the ends or the lower anges of thechannel irons. 'I'he U shaped bars 26 on the sections in the uppercompartments I4 are slightly below the position they should occupy tobecome re-attached to the angle irons II and I2 and accordingly, thejolting of the car over the rails will not cause them to slide down theirons. On the other hand, the space below the angle irons to the web E3is too small to permit them to pass underneath and accordingly, they aremaintained in their stored position. When the door is to be re-erectedhowever, the operator will bring each section to a position in front ofthe ends of the angle irons II and I2, lift each section to re-hook theU bars to the vsaid angle .irons and they can then be slid down into thedoorway, the lock bars of course being released.

While I have shown the sections made from lumber, it will be appreciatedthat pressed metal or other suitable material could be substituted.

What I claim as my invention is:

In combination with a railroad freight car having opposing doorways withside door posts, a grain door construction therefore comprising verticalangle guides secured to the faces of :2.

the door posts remote from the door ways and positioned at a slightoutward sloping angle theredown, a grain door adapted to be receivedagainst the car interior faces of the door posts comprising amultiplicity of individual sections stacked one above the other in graintight abutments and each of said sections provided at either end, on thecar interior side with U shaped straps, said straps, bent around theends of the sections and hooked over the fianges of the adjacent guidesfor vertical sliding movement of the sections thereon and such that thereceding lower portion of the guides, through the straps, will hold thelower door sections in a grain tight engagement with the interior facesof the door posts while the upper advancing portions of the guides,through the said strips, will loosely retain the upper door sections inposition to be pressed into similar grain tight engagement with the doorposts by the weight of loading grain.

HENRY WILLIAM ETHELL.

